I replaced my EPS gear a few weeks ago with the single rubber version (From Kia?) because I had very very similar symptoms. What a pig of a job. Turned out that my original gear was absolutely fine, but I swapped it anyway as a precaution.
Next on my list is the front suspension top mounts on the basis of this service bulletin -
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...40502-9999.pdf
I've also definitely got some rattles coming from somewhere around the steering column area so I need to investigate that as well.
A bit disapointing on a MY2016 car delivered September '15, with only 25k miles.